Well, the space battle is really good. Just need to find more ways to change the Marginal Cost versus Marginal Benefit Curve for simulation mode. Otherwise, it's just a matter of finding the one system and repeating it.

There could be a space monster that eats away minerals or a space monster that eats away people. And you can buy something that protects minerals and people from space monster. You could buy a bank that increases the money you get per turn.

Random Events could be(in later versions can be based more on what the player does)+turned off in options:

Corrupt politicians(Empire Loyalty decreases rapidly and politicans have no effect on it).
Rich source of Minerals found! Mineral increase doubles for ten turns.
Disease! Lose population at a rate of 50/turn.

I tried out the tutoirial part of the demo today and really enjoyed the combat side of things. I probably should have mentioned this much earlier, but have you considered adding a skirmish mode also.

By skirmish mode, I mean fighting one mission after another without all the macromanagement parts in between. For example, it would be nice to start with some units in battle one, and as you keep winning battles you gain currency to buy more of the same units or new units for battle two and so on.

The gameflow would be like this:

Select five free units (they can be all the same or mix and match) to start battle one with. Player has zero currency.

If player wins battle he/she gains 1000 (or whatever amount) for each enemy unit he/she kills, and loses 500 (or whatever amount) for each player unit lost in battle.

So if battle one has three enemy units and the player wins the battle with only one casualty, they gain 3000 - 500 = 2500 currency to spend at the shop to buy more units before battle two.

So basically, the management aspect is kept at the very bare minimum in skirmish mode, and combat is the main focus. This mode would be ideal for people who just want to play a battle or two buy some units and quit for the day. For those who have more time can play new game (where you get macromanagement and combat) versus skirmish mode (where you only have to worry about buying new units and combat). This would be perfect for those who don't want to get too involved or are not interested in space strategy games (like me, obviously).

Obviously, each battle in skirmish mode gets a little more difficult (depending on the game difficulty setting, if there is one). but to offset it is the shop to buy more units. It forces the player keep their units alive in order to gain the max amount of currency so they can buy more units at the shop which will help them in the battles to come. This is what strategy combat is all about. However, if the player is playing on a lower difficulty setting they have the option to replay the mission if they get a game over or if they lose one or more units, whereas on higher difficulty player gets to restart mission only if they get game over but not if they lose one or more units.

Back to the example above. The player won battle one with only one casualty so he/she carries over four units for battle two. However, they spent 2500 currency to buy two units at the shop so they will now have six units that can participate in battle two. After battle two, they shop again and everything carries over to battle three.

Again, this entire idea revolves around me only liking the combat part of this game and not the macromanagement aspect, and I hope you really consider this in a future update.

Today while doing a testing session with couple of friends, they all mentioned it would be cool just to have the possibility to play predefined scenarios, keeping the units between them or adding new ones, and maybe adding another "experience skill" to each ship (like if they gain levels by killing enemies to raise their stats).

If the game does well as I hope, I'll definitely make this update in future since there seems to be a potential market for users that would buy the game only with this scenario feature implemented

The game Critical Mass uses a system similar to what Astral is suggesting. You can get it at windowsgames.co.uk.

I think the two modes should be called: Emperor mode(because you run the whole empire) and Commander mode(because you command a fleet against the enemy).

Maybe it could be decided in a character customization mode where you also chose the Master of Orion II like options(Tolerant, Charismatic) or Oregon Trail Chose Profession Emperor or Commander(perhaps you could even change your position during the game, if you're a bad emperor you could be cou'd and be demoted to commander! or good commander could run for Emperor). Emperor would have course have different traits possible than commander. Emperor would have good manufacturing, good research, etc. Commander would have good fog of war, accurate shots, etc.

Ok ok, the "Skirmish" option in S2 wouldn't take much time, and meanwhile should make Tower of Destiny (at least the engine... then there is also the content, and it's a huge game!).

As for UBM2 don't know... I mean, which features could add to justify a version? probably 3d matches, but for that I think I'd need to grow bigger a bit! maybe for now just a good update to the old UBM could be enough?

Anyway have lot of other project going on... a sort of Princess Maker game, and a sequel to Magic Stones (but very different) to be played online... depends also which artist finishes working first! (I was doing all the art myself but I found out that I don't have time anymore for this).